1. Field
The following description relates to an electronic device including a multi-feed, multi-band antenna using an external conductor.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, the popularity of metal designs for electronic devices, such as smartphones and the like, has gradually increased. Interest in such metal designs has increased due to the improved appearance and internal stiffness of electronic devices offered by using such metal designs.
An external conductor may be used with the aim of improving the appearance of electronic devices, and a conductor frame may be embedded in the external conductor for the purpose of increasing the internal rigidity of the electronic device.
As an example, research into technology in which external conductors are used as portions of antennas and the development of such technology have been conducted by some electronic device manufacturers to use a metal design.
In an electronic device having an existing antenna using an external conductor, in order to use the external conductor as a portion of the antenna, a gap may be formed by removing a portion of the external conductor exposed to the exterior, and then an end portion of the external conductor segmented by the gap is used as the antenna.
However, in electronic devices according to such an approach, appearances of the electronic devices may be defective due to the segmentation of the external conductor, and a manufacturing yield may be low in a metal-working process.
In addition, in recent approaches, as external conductors are used in smartphones, external conductors have been segmented in order to secure effective radiation performance of the antennas thereof. As an example, the external conductor has been manufactured in four segmented structures. However, it may be difficult to manufacture the four segmented structures of the external conductor, and manufacturing yield may still be poor.
Therefore, manufacturers have made efforts to remove segmented metal structures or to reduce the size of segmented metal structures to cause them to be as small as possible. However, because it is advantageous to increase the number of segmented structures in order to secure performance of the antenna, segmented points are still included in the external conductor in many approaches.
In summary, in an approach in which the entire external conductor is used as the antenna, it is difficult to implement the set target value of the antenna, so that the antenna functions properly. Therefore, it is generally required to segment at least a portion of the external conductor. However, in a case in which multiple segmented points are present in the external conductor, a yield is accordingly reduced in a metal working process used to manufacture the external conductor.
Thus, it is advantageous in terms of the performance of the antenna for the external conductor to include the segmented points. However, demand for technology for securing the performance of antennas while simultaneously utilizing an external conductor including segmented points that are as small as possible in order to maximize manufacturing yield and attractive appearance has gradually increased.
Existing alternative approaches do not disclose a way to effectively achieve the technical goals as described above.